Waiter/Waitress Resume (Examples and Tips)

“How may I help you?” The lady came close to the table and asked with a generous smile. Waiters (and waitresses!) are the group in charge of delivering an enjoyable dining experience to their customers.

Their responsibilities range from the details in taking orders and delivering meals, to the vague but profound task of ensuring customer satisfaction and establishing customer loyalty. 

Another common role responsible for similar tasks is a server, which is a more general term (instead of being gender-specific) and can be applied to various settings outside of restaurant and dining service. 

A successful waiter resume will not only leave a positive impression but may also pave the way for a job interview. From tips and tricks in writing a successful waiter resume, how should one write the application letter for a waiter without experience, to samples of bar waiter resume… the article covers them all. 

Due to its identical definition, the article will use waiter and waitress interchangeably.

Step 1: Craft an Waiter/Waitress Resume Headline

Headline, the few words that mark a person’s professional and personable brand in their waiter/waitress resume, could hammer home a candidate’s job application result.

A resume headline 

• Refers to a few words to 1 sentence that highlights a candidate’s accomplishment, title, and profiles. 
• Generally located at the very top of the resume, just below the candidate’s full name. 
• TIPS: attuning the headline on the candidate’s waiter/waitress resume to the common waiter/waitress resume description is important (refer to the samples below). Although it’s vibrant and more personal if one includes its interest in the waitress resume and gives more humanistic-feature to job hunting, providing related information to the role (in this case, a waiter/waitress) should remain as the primary goal. 

Step 2: Innovate the Candidate's Professional Summary

The answer to life the universe and everything:  

• A waiter/waitress resume summary is an extended version of a headline. It serves as a short bio that highlights a candidate’s key skills and accomplishments.  
• Putting adjectives that match with the job description for the resume at front of the waiter/waitress’s resume summary could beef up the chances. 
• Fragmented sentences in a waiter/waitress resume summary are encouraged as long as it’s coherent.

Step 3: Get the Job with Waiter Resume Skills

• A waiter resume skill list sums up the candidate’s professional skill set and knowledge. 
• Stay on topic. As said, showing flamboyant personalities through various interests is good, but employees would want to know more about the candidate’s profession on their waitress server resume instead of one’s traveling history (unless the traveling is related to food-dining service!) 
• For those crafting a restaurant waiter resume with no experience, it’s also optimal to draw attention to other sections, such as education, studies, projects (even a foodie-Instagram account page might work), intern, and more.

Bosses want to make sure their staff are the best fits. Adjust the content of your resume to match the waitress job description.

Proofreading avoids mistakes & beefs up contents in all waiter/waitress resumes.

Chronological, functional, targeted, and hybrids are the four common waiter resume formats.

A candidate achieved half of the success of their waiter resume when a well-structured waiter resume template is complete. Crafting a waiter/waitress resume template, although may sound difficult at first glance, is actually an easy task if one follows the step-by-step guidance.

• Waiter resume samples provided online is the fundamental starting of all. 
  
• The gale of creativity is not so strong in the job application battle, there’s no need to worry. Find out the qualities and sections (design, layout, art of language) the candidates love and apply them to one’s own waiter/waitress resume template.  
• Sections one must include in every waiter resume are “contact information & methods”, “expertise & skills”, and “employment history”. 
• Optimize the waiter resume’s layout and design. Intricacy & complexity may result in a non-ATS-friendly waiter resume. 
• Avoid essay writing & aim for concise language. 
• BASICS:
  1. Font size: 12 as the main font. 10-16 font size for another minor purpose.
  2. Font choice: stay in the classics. Arial / Helvetica / Cambria / Time New Roman / Georgia / Calibri are some good choices.

Talents are sometimes gifted and may need more time to come in handy. Online resume builders fuel up the process and avoid the torturing pain in design and layout. Some even provide free waiter resume examples and templates for users.

1. Include only relatable information to one’s waiter resume (focus on the industry and necessary skills for the role) 
2. Provide data-oriented results in employment history or the waiter/waitress professional summary. Quantifiable accomplishment is the key (ex, daily customer count, satisfaction rating, etc). 
3. Use only ATS-FRIENDLY waiter/waitress resume template. 
4. Use Active Verbs to show initiative, effort, and determination. 
5. Tailor the waiter/waitress resume to a specific job by adding keywords.

1. Mix up a waiter resume with a waiter CV (reminder: the latter is also different from a waiter cover letter). While the former is used in a job application setting, the latter (waiter CV) is applicable mostly in academia and educational purposes. 
2. Adopting outdated waiter resume objectives shows the candidate’s incompetence in a fast-paced environment and current industry. A BIG NO. 
3. Disclose personal details that may opt for discrimination (might cause personal harm). 
4. Disclosing former employers’ information or data may cause legal troubles and damage personal trustworthiness. 
5. Sending the waiter resume in word format shows a candidate as unprofessional (the assumption in all-industry).